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The Champ Comes Home: Filipino Champ Partners With Playbook to Grow Local Fighting Game Community

POSTED BY Raphael Leynes ON September 24, 2018

Few filipino players have made as big a mark on the international fighting game scene as Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez. Considered one of the fighting game community’s all time best players, Ramirez has won a total of 17 championship titles including the coveted trophy at the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) – the World Cup of fighting games – in 2012. He has competed against the very best of the best in the scene including Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara. His fighting game journey has taken him all around the globe, from Japan to the United States but now the Filipino Champ is coming home.

The Champ is Here

By partnering up with fighting game stalwart Playbook, Filipino Champ hopes to channel his international experience and aptitude into taking the local fighting game community (FGC) to new heights. Filipino Champ​ weighed in on the momentous partnership as well as the personal significance of what he’s setting out to do:

“This is a big deal to me because I wanna unite the Fighting Game Community in the Philippines. My goal right now is to help everybody,train everybody, and work with everybody. I really appreciate PlayBook for bringing me in, to partner up with them and hopefully we can grow the gaming scene here in the Philippines”.

PlayBook is the name behind the country’s biggest Fighting Game events such as BrawlFest Versus Arena​ and the recently concluded REV Major. They hope to have Filipino Champ share his experience and prowess by working with pros and rising stars in the industry to raise the level of the competition and conduct in the country. They also aim to be more involved giving back to the public through their community work in an effort to reach out to all members of the community.

Playbook Esports head Richard Brojan had this to say about Filipino Champ’s return home:

“We are very happy to welcome Filipino Champ to the local fighting game scene. His experience in the international stage will be a big help in motivating our local players to compete in the major tournaments outside the country. So we are really looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the community”

Wake Up Super

Since his arrival in the country early this month, Filipino Champ has wasted no time getting his feet wet and making big moves. He’s frequented the Playbook Lounge in the Circuit Makati getting to know the local scene and its players. He’s also competed in the recently concluded Rev Major 2018 taking the top prize for his marquee game Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 on day 1. He also ended up taking second place in Street Fighter V: ArcadeEdition on day 2, in an incredible nail-biter of a match against PBE| JAMSE.

He’s also appeared on 99.5FM talking to talk about everything good in the realm of videogames. He also guested on the latest episode of the GG Blitz with Playbook’s own Ron Muyot as they talked with host Allyza Taylor about everything that went down at Rev Major 2018.

With Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez off to a running start we’re looking forward to his and Playbook’s future plans to elevate the local fighting game and esports scene in the country. A team-up of this magnitude can only do great things for the local community but it will not come without its fair share of struggles. It’s a good thing we have a Champ in our corner.